A common telephony feature is placing a user on “hold” or in an “on-hold” state. When a first user places a second user on hold, the connection is maintained while the first user's handset is disconnected from the connection. This allows the first user to take another call or step away from the handset. When the hold feature, or state, is enabled, the second user might be connected to another signal source for the receive signal path, such as broadcast news or a prerecorded message. A very common signal source for the on-hold connection is pre-recorded or broadcast music, termed “on-hold music”, where music selections are transmitted to the receiver while the connection is in an on-hold state. The music selections are played out at the second user's handset receiver until the on-hold state is terminated.
The second user typically has no means of control over the on-hold music. Some types of on-hold music may be annoying or objectionable. Thus, there is a general desire to replace on-hold music with other content selected by the second user and provided at the second user's side of the connection. This desire has led to the development of various methods and apparatuses allowing for replacing on-hold music in telephone connections.
For example, WO 2009/073035 discloses a wireless telephone handset which, while in an on-hold state, allows a user to select one or more sources for play-out of media at a handset receiver, and then be signaled when the on-hold state is terminated. Detection of on-hold state is done by detecting on-hold music or by receiving an on-hold signaling. The media source is located in the user's handset or accessed through a separate connection established between the handset and the network.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 7,136,479 discloses a replacing on-hold music with audio content from a local source at a telephone receiver. The local audio content is played to a user while on-hold music is detected.
More generally, U.S. Pat. No. 8,412,164 discloses reproducing various kinds of user-selectable data while a user is placed on hold in a telephone connection.